Modern textile machines are constructed as multiposition machines, it being possible to use conveyor belts for the removal of takeup packages, which belts are accommodated in the region of the central longitudinal axis of the machine inside the machine frame. The finished takeup packages are delivered to these conveyor belts either by hand or by automated handling devices. When the packages are doffed by the so-called random doffing method, in which a doff occurs, under circumstances at relatively widely spaced-apart positions, which need to be doffed, the problem will arise in the case of a two-sided textile machine that a position on the conveyor belt, on which a takeup package is to be deposited, is already occupied, because a takeup package was deposited thereon shortly before from the opposite machine side.
To solve this problem, it already known to arrange two conveyor belts along the center axis of a textile machine. Such apparatus are described, for example, in published German patent documents DE-OS 32 44 015 and DE-OS 33 32 409.
In these known apparatus, the package conveyor belts are arranged side by side in one plane and move in opposite directions. Located at the one end of the two conveyor belts is a device for transferring the packages from the one conveyor belt to the other. In such an apparatus, it is not possible that packages from the one or the other machine side collide. The disadvantage of such an apparatus is that it results in an excessively wide textile machine, which greatly affects the room conditions when the machines are installed.
Furthermore, published German patent document DE-OS 35 11 815 discloses an automatic winding machine with a traveling package doffer, which comprises a package conveyor belt. Arranged above the package conveyor belt is a device for gripping and lifting the packages, which serves as an expanded storage and to which the packages can be transferred from the conveyor belt and temporarily stored thereon. However, the packages are not further transported by the package gripping and lifting device, but need to be returned to the package conveyor belt for their continued transportation.